They are, undoubtedly, a staple within Cache Valley.
They’ve been honored guests at funerals and weddings, and they’ve made appearances at family reunions, church parties and school activities.
Loyal supporters say they are among Utah’s best chicken strips — and they are served out of Summit Creek Sinclair in Smithfield.
In the early 2000s, contractor Gary Andersen opened the gas station on the southwest corner of the town’s Main Street and 200 North.
A few years earlier, he’d built Riverside Corner, his first convenience store. There, the Hyrum native piloted something so unremarkably simple yet revolutionarily incredible that it would send waves through northern Utah communities for decades to come: chicken strips.
This, he emphasized, was before the current chicken strip craze had taken wing.
“Whenever you start something, you’re always taking a little bit of a chance. You don’t know exactly what you’re going to do,” Andersen said. “So when I started, I wanted to sell something that not every convenience store was doing.”
Cluck, cluck, chicken worth your buck
He wanted something he could use to meet tall demands in short spans of time.
“So,” he said, “I developed the chicken strips, not knowing that it would be something that would catch on the way that it has.”
Now, the gas station peddles about 250 pounds of battered-and-fried poultry daily, sliding it in styrofoam boxes with tater tots, fries, or potato logs as eager chicken lovers wait in anticipation.
Though the convenience store buys the batter, he said he learned to add just a bit of spice which makes “a great big difference.”
“We’ve had a lot of people ask us for it,” he said. “We have to say no, because then everybody’d be selling what we’re selling.”
Leslie Madrigal, a Utah State University student who has lived in Logan all her life, tried her first bite of Sinclair chicken strip on May 13, after her friend and fellow student, Ted Muir, found out she had never tried the battered bird recipe.
“I liked its flavor and how it was not dry,” Madrigal said.
“It’s the best chicken tender,” Muir chimed in.
Anyone who wants to test her claims can give it a try — the chicken strips are $9.49 per pound. The Sky Canyon Special — which combines the names of the nearby Sky View and Green Canyon high schools — will set you back $6.99, and comes with two strips, two potato logs, and a 44-ounce soda. For a dollar more, you can trade the potato logs for fries or tots.
Which comes first, the chicken or the chitchat?
Because he’s getting to a point in life where he’d like to “calm down,” Andersen sold Riverside Corner, and is working to sell two other chicken-selling gas stations: Pops in Clearfield and Shaka’s in Idaho Falls.
“But I’m going to keep this,” he said, speaking in his Smithfield convenience store this month.
Throughout an interview with UPR, he looked toward people walking into the station, offering waves, nods, and the occasional hello.
“It’s really important to us that we know our customers and greet them and meet them and say hi,” he said. “... Some people will come here two or three times a day.”
Though Andersen said the community was initially hesitant toward his plan to build a gas station on the prominent Main Street parcel, he said he’s worked to make the business a part of the community, sponsoring little league and high school sports and participating in community events.
And just as the business had paid attention to the community, the community has returned the favor. In one instance, Andersen recalled, the Sinclair dinosaur that sits out front was taken from its home and hoisted on top of the adjacent McDonald’s by an ambitious, if not mischievous, group of kids.
“We found out who did it, and they said, ‘Would you like to press charges?’” Andersen remembered. “I said, ‘No, I can’t pay for that type of advertising.’ … I should have paid those kids.”
The convenience store has also grown into a common gathering space for kids, retirees, and seemingly everyone in between as its community significance has somehow outgrown its chicken’s succulence.
A hub for hanging out
Allen Palmer, for example, said he’s never even tried the golden strips, though he visits the gas station twice every day.
“I could get murdered pretty easy,” the retired man said, “because they’d know right where I’d be at 7 [a.m.] and 3 [p.m.].”
His trips are in pursuit of coffee.
“That’s all,” he said. “And to socialize.”
He and his friend, Lyle Ranzenberger, sat at one of the handful of tables on one side of the building, waiting for more of their friends to arrive.
“It all depends on the afternoon,” Palmer said. “There’ll be four or five show up.”
There aren’t many places in the small town where people can just sit and drink coffee, Palmer said. When the Chevron down the road closed for a few years, the group became regulars at Sinclair, and “haven’t went back,” even after the other spot was reopened.
A few tables away, twin brothers Memphis and Cooper Chrisco, both 16, sat in a booth. As Andersen walked by, talking to customers and shaking hands, Cooper complimented his brown cowboy boots and stretched out his own leg to compare his black-leather footwear.
“We’ve been, like, almost regulars —,” Cooper later started saying.
“— on account of a soda addiction,” Memphis interrupted.
The pair said they have found the convenience store to be a convenient hangout — one they can reach by bus — that fits the vibe they’re looking for.
“Nothing beats an old gas station, you feel me?” Cooper said.
Back with her friend she had guided to a new fried flavor, Muir mentioned the elementary school-age kids who earlier had been snacking on gummies at the table behind her, pointing out how diverse of a crowd the gas station draws.
“I think because it’s not super expensive … you’re going to see everyone, because everyone can afford it,” she said.
Becoming the hub for small talk and hanging out, Andersen said, has been part of integrating into the community.
“You can come with your friends, and you’re welcome,” Andersen said. “We have a lot of people that come, and they really don’t buy much, but they just like coming, and that’s great. We’re glad to have them.”
